The Grading Process and Providing Effective Feedback

When we think of grading, we often think of assigning a value to a piece of student work (or a stack of student work, come finals week). Grading is actually a process that, with some instructor planning, yields information that both students and instructors can use to improve student learning.

This workshop will introduce participants to types of student assessment and the steps in the grading process. Participants will have the opportunity to revise learning objectives, evaluate assessments for alignment, improve assignment descriptions, and practice offering effective feedback. We will also briefly discuss models of grading, including grading on a curve.

As a result of completing this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Define assessment.
• Articulate the difference between formative and summative assessment.
• Describe characteristics of an effective assessment
• Explain steps in the grading process
• Create an assignment prompt which aligns with a learning objective and communicates grading criteria to students
• Provide effective feedback to students
• Identify situations in which grading on a curve might be appropriate

This is the first workshop in the Become a Grading Guru series.
The series includes:

1. The Grading Process and Providing Effective Feedback
2. Designing Rubrics
3. Designing Better Test Questions

Participants may complete the entire series or can pick and choose individual workshops to develop specific knowledge and skills. This workshop includes an overview of grading best practices and foundational ideas that will be relevant in the Designing Rubrics and Designing Better Test Questions workshops; We recommend taking this workshop prior to the others if possible.

Workshops in this series may count towards completion of the Pedagogy Badge.

This workshop may be counted toward the Pedagogy concentration of the Achievement in Pedagogy badge, offered through the Graduate Student Teaching Initiative. For more information, see: https://teaching.pitt.edu/ or contact tahelp@pitt.edu.

Registration for University Center for Teaching and Learning workshops is mandatory. Registering for workshops ensures the distribution of pre-workshop materials and helps maintain the integrity of our attendance records.

If you have any special accommodation needs, please contact us at workshops@teaching.pitt.edu in advance.